In various industries there is a need for alternative energy: pneumatic, electrical, mechanical, thermal, etc. but most of them have not been applied to high-risk industries.
In remote installations, considered of high risk, there is the need of electricity, which normally meets using photovoltaic systems, combustion generators, or Micro Turbines with mechanical coupling; having as possible sites of application off shore installations, devil traps, skate measurements, pipeline corridors, oil wells in remote areas, among others.
Here are some key technological problems of principal systems of electric energy generators and alternatives employed:
Photovoltaic Systems:
1. Requires large areas of instant generation,
2. Its efficiency depends on the time of solar radiation which will depend on the meridian where it is found.
3. Preventive maintenance due to direct exposure to the environment, and
4. Susceptible to theft n remote installations or unmanned areas.
Combustion Generators:
1. Non-ecological product due to fuel consumption,
2. Increased risk of explosion . . . due to the possibility of spark generation associated with the propulsion and the generation part,
3. High maintenance cost.
4. Constant supervision in refueling and checking the generator, and
5. High cost of fuel used.
Micro Turbines:
1. The propellant gas is mixed with the turbine and the electrical system, increasing the risk of corrosion and ignition to the electrical winding,
2. They do not adapt to field variations, specific flows are required for specific designed conditions,
3. Works at high revolutions above 9,000 rpm, generating more wear between moving parts, and
4. It requires a considerable gas flow to carry the turbine at such high rpm, which means more gas consumption.
Aiming to avoid and better the technological inconveniences of the alternatives of generating electric energy mentioned above, the present invention offers a Micro power electric Generator, integrated by a pneumatic motor and an electric generator magnetically coupled, where the pneumatic motor is propelled by the pressure associated to a fluid, air, natural gas, bitter gas, nitrogen, etc., designed to be intrinsically safe and that has as its main scope of application remote installations that lack electric energy, but that will dispose of pressure associated to a fluid.
In other words the Micro Generator of the present invention uses the Associated Pressure as means to a fluid propellant, where the pneumatic motor moves the electric generator through the force derived from the pressure through a magnetic coupling, replacing a mechanically coupled shaft.
The implementation of magnetic coupling in the Micro Generator of electric energy of the present invention, ensures that there is no possibility that the fluid used as propelling means, the high pressures associated to said fluid, the pneumatic motor and none of the pieces that integrate it have contact and/or penetrate into the space of the electric generator:
However, with regard to motors and electric generators, is known to be a group of devices that are used to convert mechanical energy into electrical or vice versa, with electromagnetic means. A machine that converts mechanical energy into electricity is called a generator, alternator or dynamo, and a machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy is called a motor.
Principles of the Electric Generator (stator & winding) are fully known the multiple accomplishments of the electric energy generators are well known as well as electric motors, all of them based in the induction principle of Faraday and Lenz Law. All these electrical engines are distinguished by an inducted circuit that generates a magnetic field that induces in another circuit an electromotive force, and the habitual practice of the induced is that both are built by a winder placed in the interior of a hollow cylindrical casing, built of ferromagnetic material called stators that are placed in grooves disposed to the effect, while the inductor circuit is disposed in a cylindrical rotor that interacts with the stator which is fed the necessary energy to generate the inductor field.
In most generators the inductor circuit consists of a winding whose coils are housed in slots or in arms that act as polar expansions with a winding in each arm, the feeder of the winding inductor is performed by means of a continuous current that generates a magnetic field, in both cases by spinning through an external mechanical force, the magnetic flow of said rotor penetrates the coils of the induced stator in a sequential form, thus generating a senoid of electromotive induced force.
In the motors the form of engine performance is the same but vice versa to the generators, the fixed field keeps being in the rotor driven with continuous current and the armature coils of the stator are divided into several parts and are fed by an exterior AC. The variation of the waves of the armature current causes a magnetic reaction with the winding poles of the fixed fields, and forces said fields to rotate at a constant speed dragging the shaft mechanically; the speed is determined by the frequency of the current in the potential line of the alternate current.
Combustion generators consist of an electric motor and a mechanically connected generator so that the engine turns the generator. The motor delivers mechanical energy that the generator transforms it into electrical energy. Both motor and generator are usually mounted on the same base and can be moved and installed as a single unit.
FIG. 1 shows a traditional power generator, where the motor moves by electricity (input) moving the generator to produce electricity (output), by a mechanically coupled shaft.
It is important to stress that the electric energy generators described, by using a mechanical coupling, where the electrical part is exposed to either the environment or to the propellant gas, are at risk of an electric spark generation, increasing the danger for installations where you may find the presence of corrosive gases, toxic and or explosives.
The present invention relates to an electric energy Micro Generator, integrated by a pneumatic motor and an electric generator coupled magnetically:                Substituting the mechanical coupling by the magnetic, which allows us to separate hermetically the propellant part from the generator ensuring that there is no possibility that the fluid used as a propellant, the high pressures associated to said fluid, the pneumatic motor nor any of its parts that integrate it, have contact and/or penetrate into the space of the electric generator;        providing an alternative on the methods of generating electric energy in a sure and ecological manner and obtaining the necessary energy for the operation of equipment of low energy consumption such as SCADA, situation lights, audible alarms, automation equipment, intercoms, paging and physical security systems, among others.        
An additional object of this invention is to provide a Micro electric energy Generator integrated by a pneumatic motor and electric generator propelled magnetically and that uses as propellant the pressure associated to a fluid: air, natural gas, bitter gas, nitrogen etc. where said pressure may be as low as 5 Kg-cm2 and as high as at least 700 Kg-cm2 returning the fluid to its original process and providing a sustainable process and intrinsically safe in our electric energy Micro Generator process.
Protection against fine dust: no penetration of dust and complete protection of contacts, and protection against harmful ingress of water at 1m Immersion you will not have major quantitative effects of damage to the equipment immersed in water under definite pressure conditions and time (at 1 m of submersion);
for use in hazardous locations “where fire or explosion may exist due to flammable gases or vapors, flammable liquids, combustible dust or flammable fibers or in suspension” Classified as Class I, Division 2, Group A, B, C and D, that according to U.S. National Electrical Code, specifically refers to:
gas or vapor in abnormal or dangerous places outside the normal operations of a plant: acetylene, hydrogen and other materials with similar characteristics most common flammable substances, such as butane, gasoline . . . natural gas and propane.
Another object of this invention is to provide an electric energy Micro Generator, which has as its main scope remote installations that lack electricity, but that dispose of pressure associated with fluid.
The above and other objectives of the present invention will be established with greater clarity and detail in subsequent chapter.